Navy offensive coordinator impressed with UConn defense

Looking through Navy's notes, the one item that jumped out at me was that Navy has rushed for at least 300 yards in 17 of the last 22 games including 415 yards against a very good East Carolina team a week ago. There was one stretch late in the 2013 season stretching into the 2014 campaign where the Midshipmen had nine straight games with more than 300 rushing yards.

It got me thinking about comparing and contrasting the rushing numbers of UConn and navy during that span. The first thing that struck me is that Navy ran for more yards (2,426) in the last seven games of the 2013 season than UConn has in the last 22 games combined.

Here are the totalsUConn: 739 carries, 2232 yards, 21 touchdowns. That comes out to 3 yards per carry, 101.5 yards per gameNavy: 1,264 carries, 7,597 yards, 85 touchdowns. That comes out to 6 yards per carry, 345.3 yards per game

Navy has a wonderful habit of posting video interviews on its site so I was able to catch the thoughts of offensive coordinator Ivin Jasper, who is no stranger to facing Bob Diaco coached defenses dating back to Diaco's successful run as Notre Dame's defensive coordinator.

"They are big inside, very athletic, it is going to be a tough test, up to this point it is the toughest test for us," Jasper said. "They don't give you anything cheap, make you work for it so it is a game where you have to go in there and pound it, scratch and claw for yards."

Jasper was asked if UConn's defense is similar to what Diaco ran at Note Dame.

"Yes it is," Jasper said. "Two big guys inside (Julian Campenni, Foley Fatukasi) who can plug it up inside, the Mike linebacker (Junior Joseph) is a very physical kid. a Manti Te'o type so he knows what he is doing."